Sand Storms from the Gobi Desert are a Seasonal Hazard in Beijing
Nee-How Ma from Beijing where your intrepid reporter has scaled the Great Wall, survived the worst sand storm in four years as well as meals of boiled seaweed, spiced jellyfish and pickled shark intestines (and that’s breakfast!) to relay a bit of sports history I witnessed here Sunday night.
For the first time ever, an NBA All-Star played in the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association) All-Star game.
In front of a basketball-savvy capacity crowd at Wukesong Arena, the site for the Olympic competition, Brooklyn-native Stephon Marbury put on a clinic among the league’s very best – driving through defense like a kife through butter, dishing off to teammates for easy scores, walling off opponents on D and then raining threes to the delight of the fans leading his North squad over the South 133-121.
There was plenty of “entertainment” including the dunking and skills contests and even top votes getters of each team, Zhang Qingpeng of the Liaoning Panpan and Wang Zhizhi of the Bayi Fubang, singing and dancing with cheerleaders as they emerged from the dazzling lights in the pre-game introductions in a sort of twisted Chinese version of American Idol, but have no illusions, the show that garnered the deepest response was the display that Marbury provided during game time.
In just over 22 minutes, the new guard for the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons quickly introduced more no-look passes, alley-hoops and near mid-court 3-pointers that took a rather dull start and inspired both sides to action with a lot more flair.
“I didn’t expect anything before the game. I just wanted to have fun here. But I do think I made some impact on this game,” said Marbury after being named the game’s Most Valuable Player award – very rare for a foreign player to earn in China.
Stephon Marbury - CBA All-Star MVP
In a competitive and entertaining game, (it was played quite evenly in the first three quarters with the scoring line after each quarter recorded as 28-31, 57-58, 90-86), long-time followers who were among the sell-out crowd of 13,000, agreed that this was undoubtedly the best ever All-Star game in the 15-year CBA league history.
Two other Americans also played very well. Rodney White of the Zhejiang Guangsha had the game-high 32 points and John Lucas III of the Shanghai Sharks had 30 points for the South All-Stars.
Marbury may not get his $2 million salary demand to return to the CBA next year (despite impressive numbers – 23.1 points, 9.4 assists and 6.2 rebounds- in limited games upon his arrival late into the season, the two-time NBA All-Star failed to help his new team qualify for the CBA play-offs), but judging by the crowd, he is fast becoming a fan favorite and could make up a lot of that in shoe sales over here if he does come to terms.
Starbury shoe sales now look promising in China
